Sky Q - Possible Hard Drive Failure?

[Superblade7]

Hi All,

I’ve got a Sky Q 2TB non-HDR box (Sky Q Silver) that I’ve had for around 9 years.  The box has provided a solid service all these years with no issues other than the occasional reboot.

These last two or three months I’ve started experiencing a few issues, particularly with recordings.  These are:

1. UHD downloads regularly stuttering / losing sound
2. When fast forwarding recordings (both HD and UHD) the progress bar sticks and starts randomly jumping back and forth
3. Box is sometimes quite sluggish when navigating through menus.
4. Some recordings don’t complete saying ‘Part Recorded, Software Issue’
5. When selecting ‘Recordings’ no recordings appear and it gets stuck on ‘please wait’ indefinitely

Rebooting the box sometimes, not always, helps with 1 to 4 above but not 5.  The only way to resolve 5 has been to wipe the hard drive which I’ve had to do twice within the last couple of months. 

In my online service checker it shows no equipment faults.  These faults, particularly the UHD download issue, is frustrating and sometimes leads to shows being unwatchable without re-downloading or just reverting to the HD version.  And obviously having to reset the hard drive is a real pain as you lose all your recordings and some settings.

After 9 years of great service, all of these issues I am experiencing now suggest to me that the hard drive of my Sky Q box might slowly be starting to fail.  Other than the error message at no. 4 above, I’ve had no other error messages so when I follow the online guidance the only suggested solutions are reboots and hard drive resets. I will just add that my hard disk usage is 38% so it’s nowhere near full either.

Before I contact Sky, I just wondered if any fellow community users have experienced similar issues and if so, what was the resolution for yourselves? 

Thanks in advance. 

[oldfella]

Hi @Superblade7 

Suggest you try a Reset Settings in the Q box hidden menu. 

To enter hidden menu press Home and navigate down to Settings but do not select Settings.
With Settings highlighted press 0 0 1 Select.
Only Carry out the first Reset (Reset Settings) as the other two will wipe all recordings.
After the Reset you will have to re pair your Bluetooth remote If you use one.
If you cannot switch the Q box on with the remote after the Reset press the Standby button (Amber led) on the front of the box.
To re pair the remote press 1 & 3 together on the remote and follow onscreen instructions to re pair.

Make sure that you are pointing the remote at the Q box when you press 1 & 3 together.

Resetting the settings will also reset:

Audio visual settings, such as picture resolution and HDMI control
Settings changed within the hidden engineer menu, include LNB type. If on a communal dish you need to reset the LNB to SCR in the hidden menu. After changing the LNB type you need to reboot the Q box.

[Leasty]

Had all the same symptoms earlier in the year and basically it is the hard disk; you can also usually hear the disk thrashing away as well. Mine was eight years old and I had a load of very old recordings which I was loath to lose. In the end I had to do a full reset and lose all the recordings before Sky would take the problem on. Still had all the same problems after the reset so Sky sent out a replacement box - I got a V2 with the external power supply. That also had problems (noisy and 1-second interruptions) and was replaced again. Current V2 is fine (and is UHD!).  

Afraid you will just have to bite the bullet! At least they send out replacement boxes quickly - had mine two days later.

[PandJ2020]

As a last resort it might be worth trying the full hd wipe, after all you're going to lose all the recordings with a box swap anyway.

My box is of a similar vintage and sometimes has 'moments'.  I wonder if fragmentation is a factor (which a wipe should resolve).

[Superblade7]

Hi @oldfella, @Leasty and @PandJ2020,

Thank you all for your comments and feedback.  Based on your advice I've done a 'Factory Reset' as I thought I'd try wiping everything as if that doesn't work then I guess the final step would then be to contact Sky to try and get the box swapped.

Thanks again 👍

[oldfella]

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@Superblade7 wrote:

Hi @oldfella,
Thank you all for your comments and feedback.  Based on your advice I've done a 'Factory Reset' as I thought I'd try wiping everything as if that doesn't work then I guess the final step would then be to contact Sky to try and get the box swapped.
Thanks again 👍

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Hi @Superblade7 

Work through the following link
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/sky-q-hard-disk-error-messages
If you have to order a new Q box this usually means a doorstep swap.
Don’t forget to keep your viewing card from the failed box if you order a replacement.
Also if the box you are replacing is a 2TB there are two versions of power supply. One has a standard C7 (figure of eight) power lead socket in the back of the Q box. The other has a separate power supply. Although this still has the C7 power lead into the power supply there is a multi pin Din power socket in the Q box for connecting the power supply. Make sure that the replacement box has the power supply included if the Q box has the orange coded multi pin din socket in the back of the Q box. See below.